Duty Deep
by Modicus
Summary: Exploring the depths of the Leviathan, the silent guardian of Atlantis. Sure, it's big and lethal, but everything has a story. Please R & R, especially if you've got your own ideas on Big L to tell.


Author's Notes

I wonder how I could have put off seeing "Atlantis" until March of 2002. The film, even with all its flaws, spoke of things that could have been made much greater. To those unfinished ends, I dedicate this story. I wrote a flurry of notes in the days after seeing the film, and have several hundred plot points and story threads I wish to pursue. I love backstory, filling in plot holes, speaking of the past and of the future both. My ideas range all across the film's spectrum; characters, places, history, motivations, et al.

Whether or not I can do justice to them all is a matter of time and my spellchecker. I do know that I detest fluff, and instead wish to write to bring to life the depth of the story possibilities that were barely hinted at in the film. I look to the outstanding work of Julie Horwitz and GoblinQueeen as excellent examples of how fine authors, good writing and original stories can make mesmerizing fanfic reading.

With the line "this is my first fanfic" I merely ask you to be kind. R & R, for if you hate my story, I'd love to know why. If you like it, tell me what else you'd like to see. I write for you, as much as myself.

Email me at modicus@canada.com. I can't promise a brilliant reply, but it will be swift and fairly witty.

Disclaimer

The following story is a work of fanfiction. No profit is expected from its distribution in any form, save that of delighting readers. Characters, places, material and situations are taken from the film "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" and are copyrighted by Disney Enterprises Inc. Atlantean conventions, units of measure and trivia are taken from "Subterranean Tours: Atlantis: a Traveler's Guide to the Lost City", written by Jeff Kurtti, as well as "Atlantis: The Essential Guide" by DK Books. Anything that's not in these two books or in the film is, suprisingly, my own creation. Any resemblance to places or persons, living or dead, is a happy accident.

Summary

The Leviathan. Guarding the entrance to Atlantis for untold thousands of years. Is it a mindless killing machine? What brought it to its lonely vigil? So many questions for such a silent guardian. Read on, and enjoy.

****

Duty Deep

by Modicus

[-Detection-]

[\SystemsOnFullAlert\|\InitiateFullScan\|\PowerLifters\|\PowerWeapons\]

The mud shifted, reluctant to release what it had held for so long. Slowly, the silt cloud revealed a shape larger than anything that had swam in the oceans for millennia. No light revealed the outlines of the mass, its mountainous bulk rising in a storm of silty debris. The sleek form seemed to flex as it slipped silently through the canyons that had concealed it for uncounted years under the empty expanse of the ocean all around.

[TargetFound]

[\PassiveScanTarget\]

[\AnalyzeScanData\]

[\BeginProfileMatchTarget\]

[-NoProfileFound-]

[\GeneralDataLink\]

[\MatchReadings:KnownFactors:ExtractIdentityProfile\]

[-Behaviour|Moving|Bearing202|109|Speed21_Wokanos_-]

[-Composition|MetalAlloys|CrystallineStructures|Cylindrical|ContainsAtmosphericMix-]

[-Extrapolation:Vehicle|LifeAtmosphere|Alloys|ArtificialConstruction-]

[-DirectionalVectorExtracted|Heading:ProtectionZoneAlpha-]

[\BeginAttackSequence_Shurlak_\]

[\InitiateActiveScans\]

The waters of the canyons echoed with sounds that were alien even for these remote deeps. Nearby creatures fled to shelter in caves and lairs as the call of the great beast echoed in the deeps. The ripples of sound enfolded a smaller metal intruder to the canyons, echoing back details of its presence to the now-roused monster. The beast moved closer, drawing its gargantuan bulk with incredible agility through the narrow twists and turns of canyons it had mapped millennia ago. The trailing edges of its claws scraped the tops of masts, jutting from hundreds of wrecks that littered the canyons for dozens of miles around. Silent skulls leered as their killer's shadow passed above them, as it had time and again to hunt.

The small intruder did not sense the beast yet, it seemed. The metal cylinder continued its lazy journey through the narrow twists and open corridors of the underwater canyons. It stabbed a pair of lights into the hazy murk as it picked its way forward among rocks and wrecks looming all around. The great glass eye at the front of the cylinder glowed steadily, revealing movement within. The eye held beings, guiding their metal machine through a graveyard of dead ships, showing wherever their probing lights reached. The silence of the waters was eerie in the passing wake of the intruder.

[-ScansCompleted-]

[-TargetLocked-]

[\BeginApproachVector\]

The waters shuddered again as the monster passed. It was moving quickly, seeking a swift end the latest threat to its masters. The beast had stood guard in its lonely duty for _yanut_ uncounted, never failing it its final orders to eliminate all who would use the Chasm to gain entrance to master's abode. The city of Atlantis lay deep in the earth beyond the Chasm. It was a city the monster had not seen since the day of disaster so very long ago, and long had it been since any from Atlantis had come to tend their guard.

The beast turned to pass below the intruder, which still seemed unaware of the its deadly proximity. The cold logic of the beast's mind searched once more through its files in an attempt to identify the unfamiliar shape of the metal cylinder moving slowly through the deep underwater canyons. Current data was insufficient, for the intruder matched none of the profiles gathered in the last centuries of the Leviathan's vigil. Deeper memories were needed.

The beast reached back, past the time of its stationing here in the canyons, to the day its former duties had ended with such calamity.

***

The Leviathan had journeyed in the company of its brothers, the four of them an impressive sight hovering next to the Sixth Atlantean armada as they approached the Enemy's fortifications. Today would see battle joined, a purpose that did not fill the Leviathan or its brothers with any particular emotion. Instead, their intelligences, fashioned by Atlantean hands into cold jewels of logic, surmised their functions would not be tested overmuch. The increasingly weak defenses of the Enemy would prove to be little obstacle in today's battle.

The Sixth armada would not see immediate action this day, for their King had decreed that a new weapon would be brought to bear on the Enemy, one so powerful that the Sixth would be needed merely for cleanup operations afterward. The Leviathan could not feel the relief his masters had expressed for the war's end. It surmised that with the cessation of hostilities, its own duties would be far lighter in the future. Since it had been built expressly for the purpose of waging war, the Leviathan was not certain how to categorize its own reaction to the cessation of any future need for its powerful self. It had discussed the matter previously with its brothers on their private channels on several occasions before, The four machines all agreed that anything that improved the lives of their masters was acceptable in their eyes, even if it meant their own obsolescence.

So the war machines waited, hovering above the calm swells of the ocean a mere handful of _Winyin_ from the city of the Enemy, in the shallow coastal waters of the islands ahead. The machine's chronometers ticked down the _Sarab_. The time was now.

A brilliant spear of light struck the waters of the Enemy, flashing down from the blue sky in an instant. A huge mushroom cloud erupted from the waters, rising with horrible grace towards the sun. The cloud was vast, many _Winyin_ wide and expanding with incredible speed across the flat ocean.

The Leviathan sensed that all was not well with its masters. The Atlanteans of the Sixth armada appeared to be panicking, with some vehicles turning to flee. Chaos erupted on the communications net. Frantic officers shouted conflicting orders as a new reading began to show on the scanners. The Leviathan's sensors showed a massive wall of water approaching the armada's position, radiating out from the point of the weapon's impact. The wave was over a thousand _kelim_ high, moving at half the speed of sound, smashing over the islands of the Enemy with an all-consuming hunger.

An order crashed over all the others on the comm-net: "WEE-yoahk-Chah-AHD-lunh-tih-suhg!" {We must warn Atlantis!}. More officers took up the cry, and many ships turned to race across the sea towards their most sacred of homes, Atlantis. The wave was a wall across the sky, consuming all.

The Leviathan and its three brothers turned with slow grace, pushing their engines to the limit and beyond as they perceived the danger to their masters. With the huge wave gaining on them second by second, those of the Sixth armada not already engulfed raced the mountain of deadly water towards their home.

The leviathan had not made it to the city, though it stayed far enough ahead of the wave to see the death of its three brothers who had fled with it. They were swept up by the wave, tumbled and torn apart by the raging might of the ocean's anger as it pounded their massive forms against the shallow seabed. Many smaller Atlantean craft vanished into the hungry sea, caught in flight as they sought vainly to reach the supposed safety of their home. Some few dozen of the fastest craft managed to stay ahead of the wave as it reached the Leviathan, racing ahead to deliver their futile warning too late.

As the water engulfed it, the machine coldly calculated that less than a ten of ships would reach Atlantis, a mere _Sarab _before the wave struck. There would not be enough warning. Atlantis was doomed, as was the Leviathan who served it.

***

The Leviathan probed its memory of that day, as it had countless times since. It sought to understand how it had survived when none of the Sixth Armada had, its three machine brothers reduced to drifting scrap by the wave's power. Over the millennia it had surmised that its final action, diving into the deep ocean off the coastal shelf, had spared it its brothers fate. The damage had still been severe, twisting and crushing huge sections of its armoured body like _Tarrack _paper, but it had survived.

Damaged, it drifted in the deeps, repairing itself slowly with the aid of the Crystal, whose power had become faint and distant since the explosion of the weapon. Some of the Leviathan's higher functions had failed completely, leaving it little more than a drifting wreck until all of the repairs had been effected. How long these repairs had taken was unknown, for the mighty engine of war had been so badly damaged even the chronometers had stopped. From what the machine's intelligence was able to piece together, centuries had likely passed while it lay wounded on the ocean floor.

A long ,dark time later, the Leviathan heard the faint call of its masters through the patchwork of its still-continuing repairs. It moved haltingly towards the new beacon, flexing damaged limbs and internal patches as it sought those who had created it once more. The call appeared distant, and puzzlingly came not from the surface but from deep within the earth. Not questioning this change in locale, the Leviathan moved through an ocean deepened and changed by the Weapon's thunder. It swam into waters made unfamiliar, whose depths now stretched over lands previously under the shining sun.

The Leviathan came finally to a great chasm in the middle of the deepened ocean, of a size sufficient to impress but still too small to pass its bulk. Here waited its masters; a small Narwhal-craft floated above the chasm, transmitting the beacon signal that had beckoned the awakened war machine back to its home and masters.

New orders came across the partially-restored comm-net. A damage assessment was requested of the Leviathan, as was the disposition of any other units it had encountered. When the metal titan replied that it had seen no others of the Sixth armada, or indeed any other Atlantean or Enemy ship, a prolonged silence of several _sarab_ came across the net. After a period of several _Sarab_, the Leviathan's final orders were transmitted. It was tasked to guard the entrance to the Chasm and the surrounding ocean from all intruders. Strange as it was for the machine to process, it seemed the Chasm now concealed the entrance to Atlantis, though from the haste of the orders and the data sent along with them, much had changed in the city of the Leviathan's masters. Still, the orders proved to have valid codes, and the beast settled into the mud-clouded bottom of the new sea to continue its repairs. Its new duty was upon it, and it would be faithful to duty as its lost brothers could no longer be.

***

The Leviathan turned, the grace of the movement belying the massive bulk and the power it contained. No memories of past vehicles, Atlantean or Enemy, matched the profile of the slow-moving metallic intruder moving through the silent canyons near the Chasm. Action was needed.

The great war machine began its final approach towards the intruder, readying its grasping claws and weapon arms for a first strike. Unbelievably, the intruder continued on its way, still unaware of death's silent approach. Surely a craft such as the intruder would be able to detect the Leviathan closing on it, yet it appeared such was not the case. The technology apparent in the scans of the intruder revealed no match with any previous craft, and that fact trigged an automatic response deep in the logic centers of the approaching Leviathan.

New routines clicked into place in the intelligence patterns of the machine, analyzing patterns and matching data once again. A surprising fact arose from the patterns: no intruder had ever approached from under the sea; all had been surface vessels of one form or another. This was an entirely new set of parameters for the machine's intelligence to consider. It ran more data.

The Leviathan slowed its pace, analyzing. It had never seen a vehicle such as this, even from the islands of the ancient Enemy. Perhaps this was a new Atlantean vehicle, one which had not been made aware of the Leviathan's presence. In all the time it had spent on guard, the Leviathan had never seen Atlanteans emerge from places other the Chasm. However, it had never dismissed the tactical possibility of survivors from other parts of the world where its masters had dwelt. Indeed, those intruders destroyed by the beast over the long years had first been thoroughly scanned by the machine to determine of they had any connection to its long-silent masters. To date, all intruders had been found wanting.

Considering this, the Leviathan decided to investigate the intruder more thoroughly, within wider parameters that programming allowed. Only when it had been determined that the intruder was not a new form of Atlantean vessel would it finish its task of destruction. 

The first pass was close to the intruder, to gauge its reactions and speed. The leviathan brushed the smaller shape with its left pincer, sending the intruder rolling through the suddenly disturbed waters. There was little reaction from the intruder as the massive shape swept by, aside from an attempt to regain its original heading: towards the Chasm and the masters. This the Leviathan could not allow, if Atlantean they were not. 

Again, the Leviathan turned and struck, sending the shape shuddering through the waters once more. Still no observable reaction by the small metal cylinder, no attempt at fleeing by increasing speed. Closer scans were now necessitated by combat protocols.

Approaching from the cylinders left side, the Leviathan extended both of its smaller grasping claws, clamping tightly upon the intruder's metal skin. They drew it in, the intruder shuddering in the claws' grasp as it thrust against the sudden change in direction. It was no match for the Leviathan though, which easily rotated the cylinder in its claws as it scanned it's catch. It moved its main sensor eyes along the length of the intruder, from the fluttering blades at one end to the sphere of crystal at the other. Sensing movement within the sphere, the Leviathan narrowed its gaze, peering within the hollow space. It made out a humanoid shape, approximately the same size as the masters' race. Anticipation raced along the machines circuits as it turned its full attention to scanning the shape in crystal, all in the space of a few _kallo's _time. 

Datasets were compared, patterns matched, and a decision made. The shapes within the intruder vehicle, while similar to the masters, were not Atlantean. They displayed far too great a range in size and configuration, with no visible tattoos to distinguish honour and rank. As well, and most damning, the Leviathan sensed no smaller crystals present at all aboard the intruder. This could mean only that no true Atlanteans or their descendants walked its decks. There could be no doubt. Destruction was confirmed. The grasping claws tightened on the hull.

Small shapes darted away from the intruder's main body, surprising the Leviathan with their appearance. The targets, less than thrice _tohs_ in number, arced away from the trapped intruder and then back towards the Leviathan, in a posture that promised hostility in every way.

A large cloud of projectiles blasted from the tiny shapes towards the Leviathan; an attack! It had been eons since anything had been able or even willing to attack the huge metal monster, and it paused, scanning for the potential power of the warheads that swiftly approached it. In seconds the intelligence calculated that they contained a chemical compound that was primitive in comparison to the weapons the Leviathan's armour had been made to withstand. The machine waited the remaining seconds with the intruder still caught in its claws, confident of its invulnerability.

Concussions raked the gigantic armoured shell as the projectiles detonated. The Leviathan was rocked slightly, having failed to consider the impact such explosions would have when constrained by water and refracting its effects. Though the small shapes still did not possess enough firepower to seriously harm it, the Leviathan could take no chances that they might disable a key system for any period of time. It acted.

Releasing the intruder, the Leviathan turned to deal with the tiny darting shapes. The two huge weapon arms swung through the water, a trifle too slow to catch the swiftly darting shapes. The Leviathan called its main weapon into play, charging a series of waving tentacles that emerged from around its main eye sensors. The inscribed lines all along its body glowed a brilliant blue, drawing in the energy of the distant Crystal like the antenna they were designed to be.

Readying a charge, the machine unleashed a stream of blue energy at the shapes, immolating several as they were surprised by the new form of attack. The others moved off in evasive patterns, still launching their explosive torpedoes in salvos as they dodged. The tiny shapes attempted to cover the escape of their mother ship, which was still moving at a _grat_-snail's pace away from its attacker. The battle had carried to the edge of the canyons, with the great Chasm just a few _winyin_ beyond. Too close.

The Leviathan released a blast at the intruder, cutting through the hull of the vehicle. The hit appeared to cripple to intruder, for it ceased to move forward and hung lifeless in the water as the Leviathan and the smaller intruders battled in the deep canyons. Dismissing the large cylinder as a threat, the Leviathan turned to deal with its spawn, who wove a pattern that obscured the path to the larger ship beyond.

Over a dozen of the smaller vehicles had perished, yet their brothers fought on hopelessly to save their mothership. The Leviathan coldly admired their determination, acting so similar to the laws of duty that its long-lost brothers had been created to serve. Still, its own duty was clear, tearing another tiny craft to shreds with a blast of its beam. Two more craft died in brilliant blue spears of light, clearing a path to their mother ship for the Leviathan. The crippled cylinder of the intruder was gradually sinking in a cloud of bubbles towards the waiting, silent wrecks.

The great machine speared the helpless intruder with another beam, blasting another hole into which the black waters swept hungrily inside. It sank faster, its propelling blades motionless as the glowing sphere on the end showed empty of life. Its defenders fought on, though less than _shah_ of the tiny attackers now remained, still pouring fire into the gigantic Leviathan. An explosion rocked the rear of the intruder, panels flung off into the water by the force. A cloud of small craft exited the sinking hulk, arrowing away from the battling Leviathan into the clear zone beyond the canyon's edge. A few hundred _winyin_ beyond that lay the Chasm.

The Leviathan reacted to this new threat, moving at top speed towards the escaping vehicles, numbering less than _yah_ in all. It lashed out with a pincer claw, smashing a boxy craft into metal splinters and air bubbles. A sparkling blue energy beam connected with another of the newer intruder-spawn, taking the large squarely-built vehicle in the rear and tumbling it end for end as it disintegrated.

Towards the Chasm they dived, seeking to evade the Leviathan. In all the millennia it had been on guard, no intruder had even gotten this far, or so quickly. Duty was clear, and swift. It stabbed out again and again with its beam, sending two more of the torpedo-firing gnats into death. The others swam deeper, into the Chasm itself, seeking escape from the monstrous power of the pursuing Leviathan so close behind them.

Two of the tiny craft collided as they entered the tunnel leading to the master's domain. Beam after beam clawed through the tumbling wreckage, seeking the destruction of the final two intruders as they swam deeper into the passage beyond the reach of the Leviathan. Finally, they were beyond the range of even the beam itself.

Circling the Chasm, the Leviathan considered its options. It could dig into the Chasm itself, opening up the tunnel to accommodate its vast bulk and seek out the intruders within. However, this was not within its original orders. Those had been only to guard, not to possibly endanger the lives of the masters beyond the tunnel with brute-force excavations. Yet, the intruders may threaten the lives of the masters with their presence in the tunnels beyond.

It was a quandary unlike any other the Leviathan had ever faced. Always before, there had been masters present to give answers and orders to the great machine. It had never been left to make its own decisions at this level before, and it found itself stymied as to a course of action. It awakened long-dormant communication nodes and transmitted a request for orders, something it had never had to do in all its long years of keeping watch on the entrance to Atlantis.

Silence greeted the machine as it circled the Chasm. Again and again it transmitted its request, seeking clarification of the choice it could not make. Still the masters did not answer, as silent as they had been since that last day when the Narwhal crew had set the Leviathan to guard the Chasm all those long centuries ago, then vanished into its depths.

Unable to make a clear choice, the machine considered its remaining options and made the only choice available. Moving slowly, the great bulk turned gracefully and returned to the canyons that had been its home for so long. Returned to the duty that had held it trapped for an age, defending the entrance to the home of its masters.

The Leviathan sank once more into the mud of the bottom, the metal wreckage of its' latest victims settling among the bones and splinters of earlier ones in the silence of the deep waters. Soon, nothing moved in the dark of the canyons, the graves of ships and men quiet once more in the looming shadow of duty.

[-AwaitNewOrders-]

[\PowerDown\]

[\ScanningForTargets\]

__

The End

Story Notes

Here are some of the questions I had regarding the Leviathan, after seeing the film. I tried to answer them in the story, without having each become too obvious a 'question and answer' section. Hopefully I succeeded, and kept your interest awhile.

- How has the machine kept working for 9000 years? Auto-repair? Crystal power?

- What is the original function of the machine? How has that changed?

- What were some of the battles the Leviathan took place in? How long ago? What did it do in these battles / how did it use its powers? Who / what else fought along with it? Did it have a designation? Does it remember any of this, or has it 'aged' at all?

- Is the machine intelligent? How much so? Has it 'advanced itself' over time?

- Why is the machine guarding the Chasm? Could it not 'dig through' to Atlantis?

- Why are there no other Leviathans working still? How did this one survive the Cataclysm when others did not? Was it damaged? If so, who or what repaired it?

- How was the Leviathan set on guard duty? Was this after it was repaired? Who set it on guard duty? Why would they not want it near Atlantis? Is it too big for tunnels?

- Why did the Atlanteans eventually retreat back to the city, abandoning their many tunnels and underground structures? 

- Did the retreat to the city affect the Leviathan? No-one visited it any more?

- Why did the Leviathan destroy every ship? 

- How did such a huge metal beast remain undetected in the seas for so long?

- Does the Leviathan need to 'hibernate' ? How long can it go 'powered down'? How long does it take for it to 'wake' once it detects an intruder?

- What did the beast make of the Ulysses? It had never seen a submarine before…

- Why does the leviathan no longer fly? Is it unable to, or doesn't want to be 'seen' ?


End file.
